Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
Justice League is a 2017 DC superhero film. It had a bit of a difficult production process. It was mostly directed by Zack Snyder, but Joss Whedon took over when Zack Snyder was going through some personal struggles. Joss Whedon was in charge of a few scenes, and he's also got a screenwriting credit on the film. It stars the usual suspects - Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and so on. There are also a couple of new faces, Ezra Miller being the most notable as The Flash.
So, this one picks up directly after the end of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Of course, Superman is dead and Batman is getting over the events of that film. Wonder Woman is back, but now we have a bunch of other superheroes like The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. There's a new character (Steppenwolf) who is the new enemy. He has to get these three cubes which apparently mean he can change the entire world in his image (which, for some reason, means the destruction of all humanity.) Why? Because he's evil, obviously, and that's reason enough for him to do it according to the film-makers. Either way, all of the superheroes have to get together and destroy him.
The problems with this film are numerous. This is one of the shortest superhero films to date, and I never thought I'd say this, but it's actually too short. The first forty minutes or so is just a bunch of scenes where each character is introduced, and none of these scenes are that interesting. The main reason for that is just that the script is supposed to funny, but isn't. There are so many jokes that fall flat. There are also some unintentionally funny moments (see: Batman saying "I did a mistake," Aquaman inexplicably surfing through the air on a dead body.)
Problem 2: you can tell Zack Snyder was heavily involved in the action scenes. There's all of that slow-motion 300 stuff, and there's lots of boring CGI which feels like it has no heft, none of the actual fighting is very stylish. Another problem with Zack Snyder's direction - you can tell he thinks the audience want to spend an amount of time ogling Gal Gadot, which is why we get scenes where she's shown climbing things from underneath, and there are so many close-up shots of her behind. If Zack Snyder was reading this, I'd want his one takeaway to be that that is not the reason people watch these films. Gal Gadot is a very competent actor with a lot of presence, and that's enough for the film without Zack Snyder making people leer at her.
Problem 3: the film is just boring. Justice League is supposed to be light-hearted, fun, an entertaining diversion. But it's none of those things. All of the actors in this film deserve far better than what the creators have offered here. None of them get the chance to really show what they can do. I think Ezra Miller is brilliant in everything, but his performance as The Flash is so tedious, I find it hard to believe it's his fault.
Are big fans of the DC universe going to find something to enjoy in this? Probably. I can't imagine them wanting to watch this time and time again because it's just not interesting. It feels weirdly like a stepping stone to the inevitable Justice League 2/a bunch of other DC films. There are a couple of post-credit scenes which hint at things to come in the future (I won't spoil them here), but they are effectively just adverts for future films, and one of them is for a character who is unspeakably annoying.
Honestly, Justice League is incredibly weak , and if this wasn't a DC universe film, I think a lot of critics would be far less forgiving. It feels incredibly cluttered, the action scenes are pretty poor, the script is pretty terrible in some parts. I can see big fans of the DC franchise enjoying this if they see it once, but this is one of the worst superhero films to come out in a while.
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